Adel Abdel Bari
Adel Mohammed Abdel Magid Abdel Bari (Arabic: عادل محمد عبد المجيد عبد الباري; born 1960) is an Egyptian militant who, together with fellow Egyptian Ibrahim Hussein Abdel Hadi Eidarous until the latter's death, was in the custody of the United Kingdom since 1999,[1] fighting extradition to the United States, where they were wanted[2] in connection with the 1998 United States embassy bombings in East Africa. Both men were extradited to the United States in October 2012.[3]
On a return trip from the United States to Egypt via the UK in 1991, Abdel Bari applied for political asylum. It was granted in 1993.[4] While at large in London he worked for al-Qaeda's Advice and Reform Committee under al-Fawwaz and alongside Eidarous. In October, Bari contacted Mahmoud Jaballah to mention he was shipping him several books and periodicals, including al-Mujahideen and al-Faqr for distribution in Canada, and copies of the Shifaa and some audiocassettes he asked him to forward on to Thirwat Shehata.[5]
He was sentenced to death in absentia in Egypt in 1995 for his part in the 1995 plot to blow up the Khan el-Khalili market, along with Ahmad Ibrahim al-Sayyid al-Naggar and Ahmad Salama Mabruk.[4][6][7]
In 1998, Bari advised Naggar to request asylum in the UK, so Naggar could help convince Hani Sibai to support the Algerian GIA in media communiques.[8] He was arrested in September 1998 in the UK as part of Operation Challenge, which arrested seven men living in Britain through use of the Prevention of Terrorism Act 1989, accusing them of links to al-Jihad.[5][9]
According to the U.S. indictment, Abdel Bari communicated by satellite phone with Ayman al-Zawahiri, Zawahiri invited Abdel Bari into the British component of Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ), and Abdel Bari accepted, promising to obey the EIJ leadership. Abdel Bari and Eidarous are also accused of issuing statements to several press organizations shortly after the embassy bombings, in which they claim to represent the perpetrators. He received an additional life sentence in absentia in the 1999 case of the Returnees from Albania, in which he was convicted of being a media agent of EIJ and the head of EIJ's London component. [citation needed]
On Friday, September 19, 2014, Bari pled guilty to three counts of the indictment before Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. Charges to which he pled guilty were cited as including conspiring to kill U.S. nationals, conspiring to make a threat to kill, injure, intimidate, and damage and destroy property by means of an explosive, and making such a threat. According to the indictment, Bary transmitted, via international telephone calls to the media, the contents of al Qaeda’s claims of responsibility for the Aug. 7, 1998, bombings of the United States Embassies in Nairobi, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, which killed 224 people. The next day, he transmitted threats of future attacks by the same terrorists, to media organizations in France, Qatar and the United Arab Emirates. Bary additionally arranged for messages to be transmitted to and from members of the media to his co-conspirators, including Osama bin Laden and his successor Ayman al-Zawahiri. Judge Kaplin did not immediately accect the plea deal and gave the lawyers for the government and Bary one week to submit letters why he should accept the plea deal since Bari engaged in no overt acts which resulted in the murders themselves.[10][11] Two co-defendants, Khalid al Fawwaz and Abu Anas al Libi, are scheduled to commence trial on Nov. 3, 2014 before Judge Lewis A. Kaplan. [12]
Personal life
Adel Abdel Bari and his wife Ragaa are the parents of British rapper Abdel-Majed Abdel Bary, who, in August 2014, was described as a "key suspect" in the hunt for Jihadi John, an alleged Islamic State (also known as Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant – ISIL) member of its cell known as The Beatles.[13]
References
- ^ "Two Arrested in U.S. Embassy Bombings", Washington Post, 12 July 1999.
- ^ Copy of indictment USA v. Usama bin Laden et al., Center for Nonproliferation Studies, Monterey Institute of International Studies
- ^ "Five extradited terrorism suspects appear in U.S. courts", The Denver Post; accessed 2 September 2014.
- ^ a b UNHCR information on Abdel Bari and other Egyptians, originally from the Government of Canada; accessed 2 September 2014.
- ^ a b Canadian Security Intelligence Service, "Summary of the Security Intelligence Report concerning Mahmoud Jaballah", 22 February 2008; accessed 2 September 2014.
- ^ al-Ahram, Military trial for bombing suspects, 5-11 November 1998.
- ^ Egypt's most wanted, al-Ahram Weekly, 18 October 2001.
- ^ Pargeter, Alison. "The New Frontiers of Jihad", p. 54
- ^ Hoge, Warren. New York Times, "Britain arrests 7 suspected of links to Bin Laden", 24 September 1998.
- ^ http://www.justice.gov/nsd/pr/international-terrorism-defendant-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court
- ^ http://news.yahoo.com/egytian-pleads-guilty-ahead-trial-over-u-embassy-141756028.html
- ^ http://www.justice.gov/nsd/pr/international-terrorism-defendant-pleads-guilty-manhattan-federal-court
- ^ "James Foley beheading ‘key suspect’ former U.K. rapper", thestar.com; accessed 2 September 2014.